How do you elevate the game to such a level where it becomes like this though? Do you make a physically demanding interface combined with the randomness from multiplayer gameplay scenarios (FPS games) to build tension and drama? Or can you just inject a cinematic plot with heavy subject matter into contextual controls like in 'Heavy Rain'? Should we care more about game mechanics than the subject matter, or have we got it all mixed up when criticizing David Cage for his refusal to make skill heavy games?
The discussion of cinematic games will reach boiling point soon, especially with games beginning to make use of more advanced motion capture techniques that very accurately portray actors performances and more games stop emphasizing skill based combat. David Cage has been an outspoken advocate for these kind of games, which so far according to him have required quick time events, and prioritized cinematic narrative techniques like fixed camera angles and simple game mechanics.
Maybe Cage has a point about relying on cinematography and storytelling over game mechanics though. Movies are a powerful tool that allow us to watch something (without distraction) unfold that we don't normally witness. There are two different design approaches to this though, and there's a lot of controversy in the industry about how serious games (i.e drama) should be made. David Cage has said that he believes in contextual mechanics, never giving the player too much control over the story world. He also believes narrative is a storytelling device that should take priority over game mechanics (his words). In practise, this results in games do well to mimic less demanding aspects of our lives, like putting on our shoes, brushing out teeth, walking in the garden, having a conversation etc etc. In scenes with more complex actions though these games switch to timed button presses (QTEs). Cages rationale behind these design decisions is that by relying on this balance more people will be able to finish these games because of the low skill barrier, and this is seen as a good thing compared to ramping skill techniques used in so many other games.
Dark Days (2000)
What's the best way with current technology to translate Dark Days in a game then, as a Quantic Dream style game or as something more demanding on the player? Do you reduce hunting through garbage bins to survival vignettes and QTEs or do you make them a large chunk of gameplay?
I believe you have to use some instinct and common sense. Like I said Dark Days was a project about awareness at the end of the day above all. And to do that in a game you have to use the strengths of the medium so people feel the seriousness of the situation. This is why Cage could not create the Dark Days equivalent in video game form using his style of little/no skill games. Didn't he already kind of try? Don't you remember Heavy Rain? For someone like Ethan, surviving in Heavy Rain starts off as pretty simple, very realistic even. A lot of us can relate to easy days, where we wake up and nothing is really expected of us. The ease of the gameplay fits in with the narrative then. When the game infuses action elements though through quick time events the disconnect happens. Crawling through glass is too easy, and getting electrocuted becomes a minor hindrance and puzzle. The gamey elements begin to show themselves sans skill. Eventually, it creates a problem because our sympathies for his life difficulties are disconnected with our experiences, it was too easy to survive.
Similarly, trying to work Dark Days into Heavy Rains structure would do two things, 1) dumb down the characters from real people into animated puppets with bad lip-syncing and 2) Make light of their day to day difficulties. You can't fault Dark Souls for those things, and you cant fault it for being a movie either, because it sure as hell can't be a guided tour can it? The filmmaker I'm sure would have loved to take people into the tunnels personally, but making a movie about it was a compromise in face of the alternative, maybe a news story you never read, a second hand story you never heard, or a script that never got made into a film. Similarly, games give us an opportunity to dilute the first-hand experience, and at the end of the day bring us into a higher state of awareness.
To achieve that state in a game like Dark Days would mean a pretty hardcore game then! Somewhat of a mix between a survival horror with a sandbox. If games want to tell these kinds of stories they need to put the world there, like a camera lens, in the serious scenarios and let the player make mistakes like not being thorough enough in digging through garbage, or wasting their money on stupid items like in game clothing, only to suffer the consequences later.
Cages approaches for games are by no means all bad though, and Quantic has shown that they can make games that are still engaging in spite of their low skill requirements. We can say the same about the pioneer of these sorts of games, Shenmue, and its quiet, contemplative world. Dark Days after all doesn't represent the gamut of society, but just a part. Games too are meant to represent the enormity of human experience in its most basic forms. Luxury, growing to maturity, and growing up in a secure home is a part of that experience, and indeed could be a form of therapy for many players who never had those things. Games then are about fantasies, and we shouldn't be so quick to deride David Cage for the kind of fantasies he wants to promote in gaming. This is why i'm particularly inclined to the action-adventure genre over any other, because it embraces such a wide variety of gameplay experiences and is almost a meta genre in itself.
